Posted on

If you read one article about the Barbie cleaning process read this one

Today I cleaned a new Barbie doll in my collection. She’s from the 1980s and she’s from Spain ( made by Congost). I know it’s hard to find any information about Congost but they produced Barbie dolls under license in the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s for Mattel. I don’t know how many they produced but they must have produced a lot. I have heard that the quality is not the best one but anyway I like them.

This one arrived here only hours ago and since it’s Saturday I had time to clean her immediately. I can’t repeat myself often enough to tell you how easy it is to clean an old Barbie doll. I think I removed the dust and dirt from decades. You just need rubbing alc. and some Q-Tips. You dip the Q-Tips in the alc. and remove the dirt. Some collectors may say that it is dangerous because of the knee joints but I never had any problems with rubbing alcohol. You can literally see the dirt on the left leg. The right one is already cleaned.

Barbie Spanish version of Crystal Barbie

After the procedure I had a lot of dirty Q-Tips.

IMG 4696 e1526739899572

Posted on

What to do when the hair is sticky… problems with Superstar Barbie

Maybe some of you had the problem of sticky hairs. Barbie dolls from the 1980s often have this problem. Sometimes even when they are NRFB. The cause for the stickiness is the softener that is contained in every doll head. I have no idea why and I’m not good in Chemistry but I know that it (the softener) managed to get from the head into the hair. The good news is that you can get rid of the stickiness. It’s no problem. At first all you need is a bowl with lukewarm water, normal hair shampoo (the brand doesn’t matter) and conditioner. Dip the the head of the doll into the bowl. When the hair is wet put a mixture of shampoo and conditioner mixed together in one of you palms and massage it softly in her hair. Then put the hair in the bowl. The important thing is that the hair has to be in the bowl for at least twelve hours. For the next step you need a big cooking pot. Fill it with water, put it on the stove and switch it on. Wait until the water is cooking. Then put the hair and the head in there for 5 minutes. Insure yourself that the hair doesn’t touch the walls of your cooking pot. It’s going to melt when it does touch the walls of your cooking pot.  After that you can remove the the head from your cooking pot. Use a guest towel for the drying process. Put the doll towel and wait until the hair is dry. Then the stickiness should be gone. If not, repeat the process for a second time.  My doll needed the process two times.

Please consider that you should only do the process with dolls from the 1980s. When you do it with Fashionistas the result might be that your doll is bold. The method of how the hair is fixed inside has changed in the last decade.

Posted on

I managed it!!!

Finally after several weeks I can present you the latest success of my decoloration experiment. When I got this dress the blouse had several red areas. I suppose in the past the dress became wet and so the red skirt was marking off. With a little effort I managed to bleach it. Here is my result. It’s good, isn’t it?

Rio

Posted on

Washday!!!

I’m sure lots of you know the problem. You buy a lot of clothes and one or two pieces have stains or a discoloration and it makes you mad. Three days ago we had a rainy Sunday. It annoyed me so that I decided to treat some of my Barbie clothes with stains. I must say that one piece was made of cotton and the other one was made of the  material used for the Beauty Secrets Barbie blouse. What did I do?

I boiled water and took a little bowl and Oxi powder (filled  the delivered spoon up to 3/4 ) and put the Oxi powder in the bowl. Then put the boiled water in the bowl until it is filled up to 50%. Then put the clothes in the bowl. Put a towel under the bowl because Oxi creates lots of foam. I bought my Oxi at the next discounter. It was no branded product.

Then let the clothes in the water for several hours. One of my stains needed 2 1/2 days until it completely disappeared. The other one is still in the bowl. Sunshine has a positive effect on the treatment and shortens it. The more sunshine the better.